GÜLEÇ JUDGMENT OF 27 JULY 1998 28 52. Under Article 4 § 1 of Legislative Decree no. 285 (which introduced the office of Governor of a State of Emergency Region), criminal offences committed by members of the security forces within the area covered by the state of emergency must be dealt with under the procedure for prosecuting public servants. Under this procedure, the administrative investigatory authorities conduct the preliminary investigation. If this investigation implicates an agent of the State or a civil servant, authorisation to initiate criminal proceedings must be given by the local administrative council (the executive committee of the provincial administrative authorities). Administrative councils’ decisions may be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court; a decision not to proceed is subject to an automatic appeal of this kind. 53. Under section 1 of Law no. 466, a person who has been wrongfully held in police custody may apply to the local assize court for compensation within three months of a decision to drop the charges against him. 54. Furthermore, any illegal act by a civil servant, whether a crime or a tort, which causes pecuniary or non-pecuniary damage may be the subject of a claim for compensation before the ordinary civil courts. 55. Proceedings against the administration may be brought before the administrative courts, whose proceedings are in writing. PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE COMMISSION 56. Mr Güleç applied to the Commission on 16 March 1993. He relied on Article 2 of the Convention, alleging that his son’s death had been caused by bullets fired by the security forces during a demonstration and complaining that he had not been able to lodge a complaint with the criminal courts because of the administrative authorities’ decision to discontinue proceedings against members of the gendarmerie. 57. The Commission declared the application (no. 21593/93) admissible on 30 August 1994. In its report of 17 April 1997 (Article 31), it expressed the opinion that there had been a violation of Article 2 (thirty-one votes to one). The full text of the Commission’s opinion and of the dissenting opinion contained in the report is reproduced as an annex to this judgment1. 1. Note by the Registrar. For practical reasons this annex will appear only with the printed version of the judgment (in Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998), but a copy of the Commission’s report is obtainable from the registry.